Thursday, September 30, 2010

Commonwealth Games... a multi-sport even organized once in every 4 yrs by the Commonwealth Games Federation where teams from member nations of the Commonwealth of Nations participate. Most of the nations are those that were ruled by the British Monarch in the past. 54 countries are members of the Commonwealth of Nations but around 70+ teams usually participate in the games as certain independent states of countries send in separate teams.

By now anyone reading this article probably knows that the latest edition of this games is to be held in New Delhi in India starting on the 3rd of October n goes on for almost 2 weeks after which the Commonwealth Para Games will begin in the same venue.

With less than a few days more to go for the Opening Ceremony, so much controversy has surrounded the sporting event!!! Infrastructure Problems, Health Problems, Accommodation, and mainly Corruption and many more..

During the last few weeks there i havent seen a single day pass by without a news regarding some problem with the CWG being published!! While reading all this, some thoughts just struck me...

First of all, we all know that India is a country that is in the South Asian region. And there isnt much difference between India and the other 7 South Asian countries.. knowing all this, why did they in the first place award the hosting rights to India ??? couldnt the 42 nations who voted for India think of these problems in 2003 during the bidding process?? or was this a conspiracy theory by some wealthy nations to bring down India by awarding the games and knowing they may fail so that they can downgrade the country??? cant understand why!!

Then the Media!! especially the Indian media!! common guys.. lets be fair shall v?? its your own country... try to be nice!! its you who should be supporting the country while the someone is against it!! you shouldnt be supporting those against the country!! thats like being a traitor...

true that there have been corruption taking place... we all can agree on it.. but then its India... people are like that... you cant just change people with the click of your fingers!! that cant happen and that will never happen!!! but still look at the positive side!!! even though people have done corruption, taken money, still hasnt a good job been done?? the infrastructure been improved quite a lot... new venues, etc etc... what not talk about those?? why talk about the corruption only? talk about the new road.. new or renovated stadiums, new transport facilities... with all that, talking only about corruption is unfair!! if your doing a media coverage, then be fair and balanced!! never be biased to the bad side only.. talk about the good side too... ive seen very few media coverage of the new facilities and infrastructure but hundreds of news items on the corruption. not so good you know..

then the infrastructure!! why are you complaining?? iam asking this question from those athletes and nations who are complaining about them... if you can come to countries like Sri Lanka, Maldives, India and some countries in Africa for vacation and can stay, why cant you stay in a country that is trying to provide a better service to you than what you get as a tourist?? how come?? concerned about health issues??? then why are you even doing sports?? if your doing sports, you should understand the fact that you will have to go to foreign countries to compete.. if you cant do that then why not leave without complaining and give another person who is willing to participate a chance?? your not doing a thin and not allowing another person to do something also..

complaining saying the stadiums are not world class!!! what bull crap is that?? only if the stadiums are world class will you people compete in them or what?? always remember that there are thousands of athletes out their who are better than you who arnt able to compete with you people only because they dont have the proper means to get thru to the would stage!! give those people in those poor countries in Africa and Asia and all your records will be broken in a few days time!!! know that!!! and also know that they are ready to compete in even worse conditions than what you would consider the worst!! so be happy for what you get... compete and make your country proud rather than complaining and pulling out and all... all those acts show how unsportsmanlike you are... i mean seriously. get a life!!! all you people were born naked!!! not with cloths worth thousands wrapped around you!!! take a look at life... look at how life is in the other side of the world!! look how some of your very own country's acts make the lives of so many miserable in these countries!!! understand the truth!!!

now for those complaining indians!! stop it will ya!! your country is trying to do something good for yourself and you try to tear that apart by complaining?? people are trying to do their best with the best they've got and your complaining?? why not you take up the task if you think your so good at it???

especially for the CWG Official Anthem made by A.R.Rahman.. such a wonderful song!!! and your comparing it to Waka Waka??? how dare you?? A.R.Rahman is a double Oscar winner!! and Shakira not even one!! how is it even possible to compare the both?? Waka Waka was written for a completely different audience... This song is for some one different!! Shakira has a different culture!! We ASIANS have a different culture!! how can they even be compared?? its lyk listening to a Classical song and a Rock Song and saying Classical sucks!! no it doesnt!! go deep into the song... understand the meaning of it!! Waka Waka has no connection to football ever!! its a soldiers march song!! and wasnt even written by Shakira!! she jst remade it!! and Rahman made a completely new song!!.. understand these facts!!

and common... the most important part!! india is hosting this for the very first time!!! so dont expect everything to be perfect!!

get sum life guys.. stop complaining abt everything n start appreciating wat u have!! world will b a much better place that way!!!

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

this is about the man who on the wee hours of the 14th of September (yesterday) climbed the 40 feet or so high skeleton structure used for a cutout of Mahinda Rajapakse during the Presidential Elections and protested that the president either comes and meets him or be given a chance to meet the president over his grievances else he would drink poison and jump off the tower and commit suicide!!

now... why this post?? well just wanted to write my opinions on this incident, how it was handled by the emergency teams (police and fire brigade) etc..

well we all know what happened.. this man apparently climbed this towering structure at around 5.00am in the morning yesterday, placed a few banners along the way up saying why he was doing it and then went to the top wearing a motocycle jacket and a helmet with his face covered with a handkerchief... this guy apparently had some grievances of his own which he wanted to say to the president directly as he was unfairly treated according to him so he is taking this decision.. probably nobody noticed this guy on top of the tower untill light came.. i say this because, this incident started spreading on the news at around 7am in the morning, probably when people started going to work noticed this guy and then the media got there before the emergency services as there are video clips showing the emergency crews arriving at the scene... well he climbed up... media came.. emergency crews came.. what next?? get da damn man down... what happened?? the police started "negotiating" with him... WHAT NONSENSE???

in the first place, why did the police ever get to negotiating with him?? ok.. lets say to get to know why he was up there.. well they got to know that he wants to kill himself... why keep negotiating with him??? find a way to get him down will ya.... but they kept negotiating!!! aiyoo aiyoo... Lankawe policiya!!!

it was shown in the TV news that the fire brigade in the first place, filled the area around the structure with those protective cushions used during High Jump events at athletics...

with all this, and traffic jamming up the roads around the area, the emergency services kept negotiating with this man and after 16 hours of negotiating with this man, finally got him to get down after a Presidential Adviser came to the scene and spoke with him. And then he was taken away by the police in an ambulance!!

now.. this is how the emergency services responded in this scene... lets see how they could have responded...

first of all... we live in SL... when this man demanded saying that he wanted to meet the president or wanted an appointment with the president, why couldnt the police just say that his appointment was fixed and that he could come down?? simple isnt it??? after all, ever heard of a politician keeping his promise?? let alone the government!!

second option.. the fire brigade had in their possession those protective cushions... and they even laid them around the pole... so why couldnt they just make the person unconscious in some way and he would have a free fall towards the ground but would land safely due to the cushions... then he could have been taken away.

third option.. the man was threatening to consume poison... so why not make him have poison.. as long as i know except for cyanide no other poison kills immediately.. so he could have taken poison... then when becoming unconscious fall onto the cushions and then the police could have taken him to the hospital with was less than 5 mins away from the area of the incident and then could have saved him..

they could have used these methods, but they stuck to negotiating!!! and the result?? almost 12 hours of traffic congestion around the area and difficulties for the public!!

imagine.. such a small incident... a single man, on top a a pole structure.. unarmed... and it has taken 16 hours to get this guy down.. imagine how long it would take if someone pulls off a hostage situation?? probably days is my guess!!!

in my opinion... the emergency crew just exaggerated the incident.. probably coz this was their first time as ive never heard of such an incident happening in the recent past happening... so they either didnt have the experience on how to tackle the problem or they just wanted to drag on for publicity... what ever the reason was, it wasnt good. i mean.. if they didnt know how to tackle a situation like this, then how are they emergency response teams?? or they did it for publicity?? shame on them!!

any way the situation is over now.. the guy has come down.. He has been identified as Asanga de Soyza. He apparently went up to seek justice for the injustice that happened to his wife who was a volunteer counselor in the Army... he has been arrested and now remanded for disturbing peace...

In certain news reports it is also reported that he was admitted to the Colombo hospital yesterday night and he walked out of the hospital despite the objection of the doctors..

and now it is said that after being remanded by the courts, the judge has also directed the police to send him for a psychiatrist’s evaluation to see if the guy is mad or he did it for real reasons..

another twist in this story is that now the Fraud Bureau has informed the courts that he was a man wanted in a vehicle fraud case.. so wonder if he was trying to prove himself not guilty.. who knows... fella isnt speaking out na... but looking at the pics, I think he's a bit off his head as he seems to be smiling after he was arrested and remanded today...

in another twist, another man, who had transported a mobile phone to this guy by climbing the structure was arrested yesterday by the police for aiding this man... i mean.. wat nonsense?? he was trying to help by establishing communication.. and getting arrested for that?? gosh!!!!

and after all, seems like the authorities have finally learn a lesson... the structure which was put up in January this year for Presidential Elections, was never brought down despite the cutout being removed.. but after yesterdays event, the fire brigade took immediate steps to bring down the structure yesterday night itself!!! (how thoughtful) at least now!!!

now that they have had experience, hope the emergency services in Colombo act in a better way in the future!!! at least hope they use their brains...

Friday, September 10, 2010

Rev. Terry Jones, a Pastor of a place called the Dove Center in Florida in the USA has started a world wide controversy with his event to commemorate the 9/11... and this is, to BURN the Quran in public!!! He has said that he plans to burn around 200 copies of the Quran and has called in people to join in his mission which he says is to "send a message to the radical Muslims to stop what they are doing". And this like all other was reported in the media and has now sparked a global controversy... With countries like Indonesia and Pakistan saying that if the event goes ahead, bad consequences will follow.

Muslims make up almost 25% of the population with around 1.6 billion muslims around the world.. and all the 1.6 billion muslims believe in the Quran and consider it the holy book even having certain procedures before accessing the book. In a situation like this, if such an incident takes place.. imagine even if half of the 1.6 billion people get into revenge mode?? imagine the implications that can happen in the world??? USA is a country that has a presence in almost every country in the world.. there are around 50+ countries in the world that are islamic countries and another lot where muslims make up a large part of the population...

THIS COULD BE A MAJOR INTERNATIONAL CATASTROPHE!!! might get even worse than the World Wars with literally thousands of people being killed... Especially in the middle east where there are more americans than in any other countries in addition to the existing hatred, this could be like adding fuel to an already burning fire!! jst will make it worse!!

and guess what?? nothing can be done through the law to this guy as the American CONSTITUTION protects him!! well my question is, does the American constitution protect only him?? then what about all the other American citizens whose life may be put in danger due to his acts?? what about their right of living?? isnt that affected?? just because 50 people off their brains want to do something, doesnt mean that lives of millions others can be put in danger can it??

The event hasnt even happened yet and already world leaders are talking out.. It is reported in the news that the Indonesian President has written to President Obama asking him to stop this in the name of WORLD PEACE!! Pakistan government has condemned this act. Bahrain has said that this is a shameful act. Malaysia has condemned this.. India has condemned this act. And more countries have also condemned this..

And now the President Obama has also stepped in... In an interview given to a US TV he has said that this is a recruitment bonanza for the Al-Queda.. Also a few days back the US Commander in Afghanistan stated that this act could put the live of thousands of American soldiers in risk. And still this nut case of a Pastor says he will go ahead with the planned event.

In addition to all this, Religious leaders around the world of all faiths have condemned this act!! If im not wrong, the Vatican has said that this is a vary grave incident and should not happen... Also other Jewish, Islamic and Christians leaders have also voiced their concerns.. Pastors of Centers and other religious dignitaries have said that this is a shameful act which should be stopped.

CNN Reports that the INTERPOL has also released an alert to all member countries that if this goes ahead, then there could be violence in countries.. the FBI has also joined in saying violence could erupt in the country.

With all this said, this pastor still says that he will go ahead. He also questions the fact saying "If Islam is a peaceful religion, then why are they planing on violence regarding this matter". Well Mr. Jones (I would call him Mr. instead of Rev. because in my views he's not fit to be a Rev. and is not religious at all), my answer to you is this. In our religion it says that we always have to maintain peace but when the religion is under attack, do not bow down!!! Iam sure if someone in Pakistan or Indonesia does something like "Burn a Bible" day, then you would be up in arms protesting against it saying how could they do it and also create violence in the country and torture the muslims mentally and physically.. but your saying we are supposed to keep quite?? how fair is that?? you can burn the holiest book of Islam and then expect the followers and believers to keep quite??

In my opinion what Mr.Jones is doing is instead of sending a message saying "STOP" he's giving a free pass for more!!

Mr.Jones, If i personally meet you, my first question to you would be what religion do you belong to and what country do you belong to... Because if you say your a christian then you sure wouldnt do such a disgraceful act.. If you say your an American then how come you can call yourself an American when your putting the lives of millions of your countrymen and women in danger.. If you say that Osama Bin Laden is responsible for the deaths of around 3500 Americans on 9/11 then you are responsible for the deaths of Millions of Americans.. Which is big?? 3500 or Millions?? So who is the worst killer?? Bin Laden or Mr.Jones??

If Mr.Jones cant understand this simple thing, I wonder how in the world can he actually be a pastor who preaches to others. In my opinion, he is actually doing this for a publicity stunt. Probably the old man is out of his head and is a person who now wants to make it big in the world and so has pulled such a stunt.

And also President Obama too along with other leaders say that this is a publicity stunt. But what are they doing??? One tomorrow is the D-Day and its yet to be seen what is to happen... Authorities are supposedly making every effort to stop this from happening by rejecting fire permits to create a bon fire and the US Legal Department having meetings to see how this can be legally stopped. So it is yet to be seen what the most powerful nation in the world can do to protect world peace!!

Now with the topic being world peace it is surprising to see the United Nations keeping a low profile in this issue except for the statement by the Secretary General against this act. As a world body responsible for world peace, the UN should be doing more in this issue in my opinion. Also with the UN Conference coming up this month, this matter could spark an international crisis... Sometime it may go out of control even. But its sad to see the UN not doing much on this issue.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

So you guys probably heard about this sometime back but today its official!!!

Google, the search GIANT has rolled out a new product in their search line up... the launch event is still going on at the time iam writing this post... but the main topic is done... its launched!!! Get ready to welcome Google Instant Search...

Now for those who don’t know what in the world am talking about here you go...

Google Instant Search is a modification of the Google search engine whereas before you type the search team and press "Search" button or press enter to search whereas now, all you gotta do is to just type in and it will start searching and while you modify your search criteria, it keeps modifying the results shown in real time!! And best of all - NO RELOAD OF PAGE!!!

This is cool... seriously!!! You gotta try this... but then at the moment its only limited to those people who have a google account... so login thru your google account then go to www.google.com/instant to activate Instant Search for your account.... Chrome n Firefox browsers seem to be the best browsers it seems to be working with as I have tested... IE doesn’t seem to be impressive... don’t have Safari or Opera installed so can’t check them although the reports coming in say that they seem to be working on them too…

The Instant Search is currently working on computers only… and those with a mobile phone will have to wait for some time… and its not long… according to the live event that is currently going on, the mobile version is to be launched in the Fall season which starts end of September.. so only a few months wait... and for those who cant wait, a test version of the site is also available as of now but i dont know if it will stay on for long as i think it is up only temporarily for display purposes today.. but then who knows.. it myt stay on...

below is a screenshot that took of an instant search that i did for those who still dont have this activated!!!

CLICK TO VIEW LARGE IMAGE

I still dont know the back end process of how this thing works but then my guess is that google (who seem to have some really great employees) has made a system which takes their predicting system that was there for quite a long time now and integrated it with search.. this is probably done with AJAX where the this is updated according to the search criteria at the same time providing suggestions also.... AJAX can do wonders!!! and this seems to be one of it (if this thing works on AJAX). im pretty confident this works on AJAX coz i jst chkd da instant search results thing with JavaScript turned off n the thing doesnt work... n i turn it on and works again... so my best is that this thing works on AJAX or who knows if they have found out sum new methods in HTML5. after all this is Google... not Microsoft or Yahoo!! (anyone still using Yahoo?? ive even forgotten how the homepage of yahoo looks :P:P:P)..

so long for now.. will update this post if anything new comes up about instant search... until then...

Sunday, September 5, 2010

it has been the center of many controversies in the world with the latest at the time of this post being that of Kevin Peiterson's controversy...

well like every other person, celebrities are also on Twitter... to name a few, Obama, Lady Gaga, Justin Beiber, n a whole lot more...

these guys use twitter to communicate with the outside world... make announcements and also give a peek of the private life of themselves to their fans... these guys have 1000's of ppl following them n all that..

so this post of mine is dedicated to all the celebs that I follow on twitter... u can connect wit me on twitter by going to my twitter profile clicking the "t" button on the right panel but below are the names of the celebrities n a link to their twitter pages.... all of them r their official pages...

most i follow jst for fun n a few coz i like them.. most of the actors are being followed jst for fun i wud say... but some businessmen.. these guys give sum great tips n advice n all dat... so its a good bet dat u follow them...

Saturday, September 4, 2010

well, Iam sure that pretty much all of you out their knows what the Air Force One is... well there are chances that you wont be knowing so let me give you a small introduction.

Air Force One is the name that is the call name given to any plane that the President of the United States of American boards into. Actually there is a specialized plane that he exclusively uses for his air travel but that plane to can only be called the Air Force One only the US President gets into the plane.

Well this post is about this specialized plane. Actually its planes.. the US Air Force has two planes, identical in every aspect which is used for the transport of the US President ONLY. This plane has all the sophisticated systems and also defense systems aboard the plane is is like the portable version of the White House and the Oval Office.

And for your information, their is also the Presidential Helicopters which are called Marine One.

The following is a documentary made by National Geographic Channel about the Air Force One planes and how it operates etc. Its a good watch actually.

Watch it.... You will be amazed at certain things revealed in the video.

There is also a documentary made on the Marine One's which I will post soon after I watch them..

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

so you guys would have already seen this making the rounds in the internet and all...
but i never saw in any website where a whole list of the stuff thats there on the table been published.. so here i go.. i make the effort.. found a good high res pic (thx to labnol/digital inspiration) and with much difficulty trying to figure out wat is wat n put it here...

so here i go... if i can read one, i will jst put da symbol only or "x" marks...

Ol 21 - Google took Street View to the 21st Winter Olympics in Vancouver mappings parts of Whistler Mountain via Snowmobile.MJ 5000 - Twitter reported 5000 Michael Jackson related tweets on the afternoon he died.Ir 3 - 3000 YouTube videos were uploaded from Iran in the first 24 hours of the 2009 presidential election xxxxxxxx.Yc 08 - YouTubes YouChoose '08 channel featured 14 presidential candidates, 4 candidates from the senatariol race, and 1 Gubernatorial race.Ht 46 - Google's Person Finder app helped track 46000 missing Haiti earthquake victims.Ipl 20 - YouTube's India Premier League channel had over 55 million views in Spring 2010.Wc 12- 12 million people per minute visited internet news sites on the 2010 World Cup's opening day, a record.Lew 98 - Drudge Report breaks the story that Bill Clinton had an affair with Monica Lewinsky. It was the first story to break online.Ka 100 -Ba 250 -Gn 911- Itw 20 - St 3x - Search traffic from tripled in the first half of 2010.Tr 70 - Google translates over 160 million pages everyday in over 70 languages.Aw 00 - The first AdWords as (for Lively Lobsters) went live in 2000.Nav 1 - Over 1 billion miles have been navigated with Google Navigate.Ad 1- Over 1 million businesses are AdWords advertisers.Cid 33 - More than 33% of the monetized views on YouTube are claimed via Content ID.Dcp 45 - The Double Click platform servers over 45 billion ads per day.Tv 30 - over 30% of our TV ads advertisers are new to TV advertising.As 80 - AdSense reaches 80% of all internet users every month.Sp 70 - More than 70% of incoming gmail traffic are spam. but less than 1% shows up in your inbox.Yt 24 - 24 hours of videos are uploaded to YouTube every minute. The equivalent of 137000 full length movies.Ap 3 - Google Apps adds over 3000 paid users every day.Gdn 1 - Over 1 million websites are on the Google Display Network.Bo 12 - Google has scanned over 12 million books.Api 4 - There are more than 4 billion daily hits xxxxx at Google API's.Do 175 - There are 175 Google Search Domains.Ne 1 - Google drives over 1 billion clicks to news sites every month.Eco 54 - AdWords generated over $54 billion in Economic activity for American Businesses and organisations in 2009.And 200 - Over 200000 Android devices ship worldwide everyday.Fud 85 - There are 85 cafes on Google campuses worldwide.Bm 1998 - The first Google doodle was Burning Man in 1998.To 05 - Our first international office opened in Tokyo in 2005.Jk 1 - Google's first April fools joke announced Google's ability to read your mind as you visualize your search results you want.Au 900 - There have been over 900 Authors @ Google talks. The first was Malcolm GladwellSol 1.6- 1.6 Megawatts of Electricity are generated by the photovoltaic panels at the Mountain View Office.Gt 200 - Over 200 goats regularly work at the Mountain View campus clearing and fertilizing fields.Min 7 - Meetings at Google xxxx 7 minutes xxxx on average.Pt 20 - Google 20% projects xxxx to News, Sky, Suggest, Moderator and the Google free shuffle system.Of 70 - There are 70 google offices worldwide.Bk 650 - The gBike program in Mountain View started with 650 bikes in 2007.Ck 466 -Sw 99 -UK 86 - In the UK, Children are more likely to own a cell phone than they are a book. (86% of kids aged 7-16 own a cell phone while 73% own a book)Zb 1.2 - The planets digital content in 2010 1.2 zettabytes (equivalent to 1 billion terrabytes).Kid 7 -The average American kid downloads their first piece of media content (such as video or music) at the age of 7.Mb 91 - 91% of mobile users keep their phones within reach 24 hours a day. 7 days a week.Se 210 - 210 billion emails are sent out everyday.Pb 10 - Approximately 10 pettabytes of new information is generated everyday.On 26- Today, over 26% of the worlds population (1.5billion people ) has internet access compared to 1.7% ten years ago.Ch 240 - In China, 240 million people regularly watch videos online and a quarter of them stopped watching regular TV last year.Iq 7 - Iraq was the #7 search term in 2003.Ms 5 - Mobile search is up 5x in the past 2 years.Ga 09 - Lady Gaga was the top image search query in 2009.Sp 1 - The fastest rising search query in 2008 was Sarah Palin.Lol 211 - Charlie bit my finger video has over 211 million views on YouTube.Pm 4.82 - Users spent 4.82 million hours playing the Google PacMan doodle in May 2010.Vs 30 - Nearly 30% of searches from Droids and Nexus Ones are via Voice Search.Nt 1909 - in the October 1909 issue of Popular Mechanics, Nikola Tesila predicted the Wireless Internet.Arp 4 - The original 4 nodes of ARPANET were University of Utah, UCLA, UC Santa Barbera and Stanford Research Institute.Em :) - The first documented use of an emoticon was in a typed letter to CMU's Computer science board in 1962.In 3- It took 37 years for radio to reach 50 million North American users, 15 years for TV, 6 for cable, and just 3 for internet.Www 90 - The World Wide Web launched in 1990.Dot 00 - The Nasdaq Composite lost 78% of its value in 2000.Mo 93- The first popular web browser (Mosaic) launched in 1993.Qe 76- In 1976, Queen Elizabeth was the first head of state to send an email. In 2007 she launched a YouTube channel.Vc 74 - Vint Cerf proposed the idea of the internet in 1974.Lo 69- the first message sent from the internet is Lo (cut of from Login) in 1969.Cu 91 - The first webcam was at Cambridge University in 1991. It pointed at the Coffee maker so weary computer programmers could avoid the trip to an empty pot.

so thats the whole list.. only 6 missing.. plus i think 4 words also missing...

pretty interesting stuff too.. never knew most of these stuff... hats off to the makers of this....

and by any chance u get to know what those missing parts above are, please do let me know what they are so I can fill them up..

First of all, welcome to my blog. My Ahamed Nishadh from Sri Lanka. This is my personal blog where I would periodically write on anything and everything that comes into my mind. So read one. And if you like something, share your views by commenting. Also, if you don't like anything, you are free to leave and not come back.